to think some people can't read?

[SomeoneElseEntirelyNow]

Caveat - I proofread and edit for a living, so this is a particular bugbear of mine.

Literally every thread I've been on today has been derailed by someone making a statement that is clearly contradicted by information from the OP, or jumping down the throat of a PP because of something they never wrote, or asking questions that are already answered, and then getting their knickers in a twist about it.

I can understand skim reading, i do it myself, but if you're going to start hurling invective at strangers online, surely you'd double check what you've chosen to get mouthy about first? Or are the type of people who froth at the mouth over things that are nothing to do with them just not that good at reading comprehension?

OP: agree totally with your statement and this is just not on MN. How many times do we all experience "skim reading" colleagues, contacts - they skim through, pick up a few words and - bang - there they are with a comment that has little to do with the original text.
When I was at school we had "English Comprehension" where we learnt to read a text, consider what had been written and then form an opinion. My english teacher would never have allowed "skim-reading"

I think you are victim blaming, not everyone has the privilege and luxury of the literary skills you and I have.

I have no idea what went wrong there - I apologies. I am new to MN and haven't mastered all the tricks yet. I hope this will only be posted once.

@BubblyBarbara you prove my point beautifully, thank you

YANBU. MN is notorious for the appalling level of literacy present across the boards.

I’m not sure why MN specifically attracts so many posters with limited literacy and reading comprehension skills.

Perhaps it’s because it’s a forum aimed at parents of younger kids, so many people are reading and posting in a rush due to their attention being pulled in many directions?

I wish I knew. It’s very noticeable, I’ve frequented many forums over the years and MN really does have an air about it of a lack of education amongst its posters. I’ve wondered about it ever since I discovered MN.

I'm glad it's not just me (having just made a snarky comment on another thread!

Yes, there will always be the odd typos or autocorrects, but as @Squishsquashed points out, if you are going to post an opinion then at least have the courtesy to double check the content of the post you are reacting to first.

It makes me instantly disregard any advice given by someone who hasn't bothered to read the words correctly.

Don't get me started on people who can't be arsed to RTFT, or at the very least the OP's updates.

I think some people on here just like being argumentative and mean to people - why let a little thing like accuracy stop you?

I agree! I don't understand... reading comprehension was pretty much the mainstay of English lessons as soon as I learnt to read...so 14years of "reading the extract and then answering questions on it."

Did most of mn not follow a similar curriculum given the lack of comprehension on here? Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, typoes are all understandable but I just do not understand these people who are so eager to jump in with their own fascinating input that they don't even bother to actually read the initial post properly.

Normally I'd disagree with your use of literally but it IS literally nearly every thread that someone will either completely ignore what the op has actually said or wildly misinterprate it.

My favourite was one recently where the TITLE stated the age of the child.

First comment: “how old is she?”

It used to be better outside of AIBU. But it is spreading.

As a rule of thumb, the more a poster spends in AIBU and not using other areas of the site, the worse their reading comprehension seems to be.

Once upon a time I did a PhD. During my studies, I taught philosophy & logic to undergrads, and marked well over a thousand essays. On more than one occasion, I discovered well-behaved, well-spoken, middle-class 19yo's with flawless a-levels who were functionally illiterate, in the sense that they couldn't write a sentence of grammatical English.

People can't read, people can't spell, people can't use decent grammar and people can't proofread their own posts.

Get a grip OP, what qualifies you to claim you know how to proofread properly?

There's no hope for us ignorami

Well lots of people dont pass English GCSE (about 30%) and some of those passes are very low grades. They may still want to join in and get or give support on a parenting forum.

Peop do seem to wilfully misread things lots of the time.